Drones target Moscow, Russian oil facilities in reported large-scale Ukrainian strike
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Drones have targeted multiple regions in Russia, including the capital, in a large-scale overnight attack, Russian officials and media outlets reported on Sept. 12.
Explosions have been reported near Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Smolensk, and the Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg was shut down due to the threat of drones.
At least nine Ukrainian drones have been shot down near Moscow, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said.
Sobyanin said on Telegram that emergency crews were headed to the site where the drone debris fell. The mayor did not provide details as to where the drones were shot down.
No information on damage or casualties is available.
Russian Telegram channels, citing resident accounts, reported explosions in the communities of Mozhaysk and Dedovsk in Moscow Oblast, located just west of the outskirts of the capital.
Drones also targeted the Russian city of Smolensk, according to officials and local residents. Smolensk Oblast Governor Vasily Anokhin said air defense units were repelling a UAV attack over the region, but gave no further information.
Smolensk residents reported explosions in the city. In footage posted to social media, eyewitnesses claimed that the drones targeted a nearby Lukoil facility. Video shows smoke and flames rising from a large fire at an undisclosed site.
Anokhin did not mention oil facilities or any possible targets in his report.
In St. Petersburg, the drone threat forced the Pulkovo Airport to shut down. Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko reported that air defenses were at work over multiple districts in the region and over the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg.
Residents of Tosno, a town 53 kilometers (33 miles) southwest of St. Petersburg, reported explosions amid the drone attack, according to the Russian opposition news channel Astra.
The Kyiv Independent cannot verify the reports at the time of publication. Ukraine's military has not commented on the reported attack.
Ukraine has previously launched drones towards Moscow with limited success in engaging military targets in the region. Ukraine has also deliberately shifted its drone strategy in recent months to disrupt Russian aviation operations and make the war visible to the Russian population.
The attack on Russia comes just days after Russia launched a record drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing a woman and her newborn child and injuring 20 others. The attack also damaged Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers building in central Kyiv for the first time in the full-scale war.
Russia has increased drone attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent months, regularly launching over 500 attack drones in one night.
Overnight on Sept. 10, Russian drones violated Polish airspace, forcing Poland's Air Force to down the drones for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Nineteen Russian drones were recorded crossing into Poland, in what Polish officials describe as a "deliberately targeted" attack.
German media outlets Spiegel and Welt reported on Sept. 11 that the Russian drones shot down were reportedly headed for Rzeszow Airport, a key logistics hub for aid to Ukraine.
